Best Places In The World To Retire

The economy in Mexico is excellent. I believe in the past 5 years we’ve consistently been among the top economic leaders throughout Latin America.

 

Mexico is booming right now. This includes sectors such as real estate development, natural resources, mining, wind farms, alternative energy, financial services, entertainment, etc.  It’s just an incredible time to be here. The drivers for growth in Mexico are stable, solid, and all indicators...

The economy in Mexico is excellent. I believe in the past 5 years we’ve consistently been among the top economic leaders throughout Latin America.

 

Mexico is booming right now. This includes sectors such as real estate development, natural resources, mining, wind farms, alternative energy, financial services, entertainment, etc.  It’s just an incredible time to be here. The drivers for growth in Mexico are stable, solid, and all indicators point to continued success going forward.

 

(Mining town, Santa Rosalia, Baja Mexico Sur, Mexico, pictured.)

We do have crime in Portugal, but it’s not violent crime. One of the reasons that there are so many Brazilians and so many South Africans coming to Portugal now is because Portugal is so much safer than their countries.

 

The crime rate has gone up in Portugal.  Do you have houses burgled in Portugal? Yes, we do. But people are not violent. It’s not like in many other countries where they would probably shoot you first and steal from you...

We do have crime in Portugal, but it’s not violent crime. One of the reasons that there are so many Brazilians and so many South Africans coming to Portugal now is because Portugal is so much safer than their countries.

 

The crime rate has gone up in Portugal.  Do you have houses burgled in Portugal? Yes, we do. But people are not violent. It’s not like in many other countries where they would probably shoot you first and steal from you afterwards. But they do have people breaking in and they have probably youngsters on scooters who rush past you and grab your handbag. But compared to many other countries, the crime rate overall is very low.

 

There are certain areas of Lisbon that are poor areas and in which the crime rate is quite high. Portugal has to be very careful because of its long coastline makes it a natural transit point for drugs. The influx of drugs that also comes from Morocco also causes crime. Unfortunately, gone are the days when most of the Portuguese could leave their keys in the front door and that’s absolutely fine; you can’t do that today, so you do have to be aware. But every foreigner that I know here says that when they come home late, they don’t feel intimidated and nervous like they would in other places. As far as statistics go, I know that the crime rate has gone up but its not astronomical like a lot of countries.

 

In England, in London, I’ve never had any incidents there but my mother’s house was burgled and totally wrecked. In Brazil, I was attacked on a Saturday coming back from the supermarket. I’ve never, fortunately, had anything like that happen here in Portugal.

 

A lot of people ask, “Carol, where would you like to go back to live?” To answer, I think it’s easier to say where wouldn’t you like to live and that would mainly be because of security and I don’t have that feeling at all here in Portugal. And I have to say most of my friends who are foreigners and Portuguese say the same thing. They all feel safe in Portugal.

 

(A village in Baganca, Portugal, pictured.)

As an American in Panama I can say with authority that it is an advantage to be an American in Panama. Why? Because the US has a long history in Panama. The association is extremely historical and strong. After all, it was Teddy Roosevelt who actually founded Panama. We built the Panama Canal from the former French development of the Canal. But he did it along very scientific and very updated engineering plans; only the best. And Teddy Roosevelt made sure to master disease and...

As an American in Panama I can say with authority that it is an advantage to be an American in Panama. Why? Because the US has a long history in Panama. The association is extremely historical and strong. After all, it was Teddy Roosevelt who actually founded Panama. We built the Panama Canal from the former French development of the Canal. But he did it along very scientific and very updated engineering plans; only the best. And Teddy Roosevelt made sure to master disease and engineering issues before the attempt and final success of the Canal were implemented by the Americans.

 

Therefore, the US not only created the country of Panama but we created a great international engine of the world, which made Panama a very powerful nation. Although there may be some political and economic issues between the US and Panama, all in all it’s a positive for Americans in Panama and continues to be and will continue to be, making for Panama an incredible future. Nothing is perfect, but the association with the USA has been a very strong backbone of Panama.

 

(Cartoon of President Theodore Roosevelt building the Panama Canal, pictured.)

One of the things to be concerned about when retiring overseas is when you have a lot of immediate and extended family who are still in the United States and if you spend a lot of time with your family, moving abroad will make the family interaction a lot more difficult. 

 

There is a lot more technology nowadays such as Skype or getting on a plane, depending on where you are, is always a possibility. However, the actual physical meetings with family...

One of the things to be concerned about when retiring overseas is when you have a lot of immediate and extended family who are still in the United States and if you spend a lot of time with your family, moving abroad will make the family interaction a lot more difficult. 

 

There is a lot more technology nowadays such as Skype or getting on a plane, depending on where you are, is always a possibility. However, the actual physical meetings with family members are a lot more difficult when you live abroad. They can come visit you or you can go visit them, but the frequency with which you can interact with family members does take a hit when you move abroad. 

 

The second thing to be concerned about when moving abroad is that without a lot of planning, the initial transition itself could be quite difficult. If you're not an open-minded person, moving abroad could be quite difficult because of language barriers. Also, the different types and levels of infrastructure could vary among countries. You may not have the comfort level you may have had in the US wherever you're going. You have to build a new community of friends who you're going to interact with locally, which you're going to have to build from scratch.

 

The third concern has to deal with all the start-up necessities of not only moving homes, but moving to an entire different country where you have different systematic issues that you must deal with.